Seasonal changes in brain and behavior

This chapter will focus on how brain and behavior can change with season. Given the breadth of the topic, we will focus on prominent examples discerned from studies of birds though other vertebrate species will be discussed. The chapter will begin with a general discussion of the environmental control of seasonal changes in brain and behavior. We will then consider two types of neural systems that exhibit marked seasonal changes. One consists of neural systems that actually process environmental information and regulate effector systems such as the endocrine system needed to implement seasonal changes in physiology, morphology, and behavior. The other consists of neural circuits that regulate behaviors that exhibit marked changes such as those involved in reproductive behavior.